﻿Sustainable Development is one of the most important arguments now a day. How we can make our world more sustainable in nature is the most significant phenomena for all of us. It is very difficult to transform the old, traditional and historically significant places to a more sustainable and modern in nature without hampering their values and historic resources. Cultural significances of old historic places represent the sense of connectivity and provide a continuation of past experience to the present and future generations (ICOMOS, 1999). These are the old urban characters which shapes the modern urban culture and identity over the time. They should treat as the most important belongings of history to go forward towards more advanced future. Future is always shaped by the past. Hence if we forget our history; it would be very difficult to get proper guidelines for future development. It is necessary for us to preserve our deteriorating heritage resources to develop our own future. However, globalization, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization and technological advancement make these attempt challenging. Urban heritage conservation in a very integrated way would be one of the solutions for conserving old values and ideas with their own traditional nature. Conservation with sustainable manner should be taken as the top priority in all development planning agendas.
Moreover, proper urban heritage conservation can help to transform historical places as the source of history, culture and socio-economic advancement for the local community and can change unsustainable community into more sustainable in nature.
Dhaka is one of the major old cities in South Asia. It has a various combination of historic places and communities which give Dhaka a unique urban character. It has long history of urbanization and this urban growth pattern has influenced mainly by the topography, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics along with inherent morphological quality. However over population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, poor infrastructure facilities and weak urban management contribute to deteriorating these urban heritages rapidly. There are several discussions about urban heritage conservation of developing countries but little discussions have found which has focused on the conservation with empowering local traditional economy to develop the sustainable community. By enhancing local economy through proper planning and policy and promote sustainable tourism can contribute to conserve heritage resources of Dhaka and support sustainable community development.
Two historically significant communities are chosen for representing Dhaka‟s heritage which is unique in nature for their traditional professions, significant local arts, handmade crafts, life style, religious and social festivals, urban fabric and built heritage. These are Benarashi Palli at Mirpur and Shakhari Bazaar at old Dhaka. They had a self-sustained economy in the past which becomes declining day by day due to rapid and poor urban development management and ignorance of historical values and ideas. However, still these two communities are trying to survive with their own efforts and make them represented of the glorious past to us.
The main focus of this study is to revive their past well-sustained economic conditions with proper conservation of heritage resources and community participation. At the same time explore several guidelines of comprehensive conservation for sustainable urban community in Dhaka. The research identifies that there is a severe lacking of integrated conservation policies in Dhaka. In fact, the importance of heritage conservation is still very far away from national planning policies in Bangladesh. Dhaka has several development control agencies however; they are not so well-integrated and well-organized to provide a comprehensive heritage planning policies for Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Moreover, incompetent rules and regulations with scattered organizations make this problem more severe. The study has tried to incorporate all these issues and formulate a comprehensive conservation planning for Benarashi Palli and Shakhari Bazaar as well as Dhaka.
Furthermore, the study tries to accommodate sustainable tourism for providing a sustainable urban economy which has always ignored in Bangladesh context. However, tourism could be a strong way of promoting heritage conservation in Dhaka which has already followed by many developing countries in South Asia.

﻿Sustainable Development is one of the most important arguments now a day. How we can make our world more sustainable in nature is the most significant phenomena for all of us. It is very difficult to transform the old, traditional and historically significant places to a more sustainable and modern in nature without hampering their values and historic resources. Cultural significances of old historic places represent the sense of connectivity and provide a continuation of past experience to the present and future generations (ICOMOS, 1999). These are the old urban characters which shapes the modern urban culture and identity over the time. They should treat as the most important belongings of history to go forward towards more advanced future. Future is always shaped by the past. Hence if we forget our history; it would be very difficult to get proper guidelines for future development. It is necessary for us to preserve our deteriorating heritage resources to develop our own future. However, globalization, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization and technological advancement make these attempt challenging. Urban heritage conservation in a very integrated way would be one of the solutions for conserving old values and ideas with their own traditional nature. Conservation with sustainable manner should be taken as the top priority in all development planning agendas.
Moreover, proper urban heritage conservation can help to transform historical places as the source of history, culture and socio-economic advancement for the local community and can change unsustainable community into more sustainable in nature.
Dhaka is one of the major old cities in South Asia. It has a various combination of historic places and communities which give Dhaka a unique urban character. It has long history of urbanization and this urban growth pattern has influenced mainly by the topography, socio-economic and socio-cultural characteristics along with inherent morphological quality. However over population growth, uncontrolled urbanization, poor infrastructure facilities and weak urban management contribute to deteriorating these urban heritages rapidly. There are several discussions about urban heritage conservation of developing countries but little discussions have found which has focused on the conservation with empowering local traditional economy to develop the sustainable community. By enhancing local economy through proper planning and policy and promote sustainable tourism can contribute to conserve heritage resources of Dhaka and support sustainable community development.
Two historically significant communities are chosen for representing Dhaka‟s heritage which is unique in nature for their traditional professions, significant local arts, handmade crafts, life style, religious and social festivals, urban fabric and built heritage. These are Benarashi Palli at Mirpur and Shakhari Bazaar at old Dhaka. They had a self-sustained economy in the past which becomes declining day by day due to rapid and poor urban development management and ignorance of historical values and ideas. However, still these two communities are trying to survive with their own efforts and make them represented of the glorious past to us.
The main focus of this study is to revive their past well-sustained economic conditions with proper conservation of heritage resources and community participation. At the same time explore several guidelines of comprehensive conservation for sustainable urban community in Dhaka. The research identifies that there is a severe lacking of integrated conservation policies in Dhaka. In fact, the importance of heritage conservation is still very far away from national planning policies in Bangladesh. Dhaka has several development control agencies however; they are not so well-integrated and well-organized to provide a comprehensive heritage planning policies for Dhaka as well as Bangladesh. Moreover, incompetent rules and regulations with scattered organizations make this problem more severe. The study has tried to incorporate all these issues and formulate a comprehensive conservation planning for Benarashi Palli and Shakhari Bazaar as well as Dhaka.
Furthermore, the study tries to accommodate sustainable tourism for providing a sustainable urban economy which has always ignored in Bangladesh context. However, tourism could be a strong way of promoting heritage conservation in Dhaka which has already followed by many developing countries in South Asia.

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eng

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dc.publisher

The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong)

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dc.relation.ispartof

HKU Theses Online (HKUTO)

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dc.rights

The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works.